Consequences
by Dragon-Rider12
Summary: Based off of the Superyogs AU on Tumblr. After the accident, he had hoped that everything would return to normal. He had no idea how wrong he would be. The night Xephos became X from Honeydew's point of view.


Never in his life had he expected for something like it to happen.

Xephos' bloodcurdling scream from when the axe met his skull still rattled in his ears. One moment, everything had been fine. He, Xephos, and Lomadia were still a big happy family of crime-fighting misfits. But then in the next moment, one haphazard swing completely shattered that reality. Xephos had been dying in his arms, a stray bullet in his left shoulder and his head split open from a blow from his own best friend.

Now Honeydew found himself sitting in the waiting room of the city hospital almost a week after the incident. His superhero alter ego, Khaz Modan, had carried Xephos to the infirmary before disappearing to change into his civilian clothes. The man had been in intensive care with no visitors allowed for several days, despite Honeydew's numerous death threats towards the company. Thankfully, Lomadia had roped him in before the doctors could issue a counter-lawsuit. She was always there to make sure his head remained on his shoulders, both figuratively and literally. As had Xephos, but unfortunately he couldn't be there at the moment. _His_ head was in a state far worse.

When the surgeons finally called to tell him that Xephos would be fit for visitors today, Honeydew was already out the door of his apartment before the good doctor could even finish his sentence. He had arrived at the hospital around ten in the morning that day, and now the clock on the wall told him it was around ten at night. The surgeon had failed to mention exactly _when _he would be able to see Xephos, but he didn't care. He would wait twenty years in this hospital if he had too. Anything to see him again. Anything.

Honeydew was torn away from his jumbled thoughts when he heard the door to the waiting room creak open. His heart immediately soared in hopes that a nurse had finally come to get him, but he was soon proven wrong. Lomadia walked into the room and plopped down into a seat next to him. Her bag stuffed with lesson plans and student tests lazily slid off her shoulder and hit the ground with a heavy thump that hung in the air.

"Hey." Her greeting was curt, and she looked like she hadn't gotten a wink of sleep in days. Honeydew assumed that she must have just finished the last of her night classes at the university. It was clear that the aeronautics professor was living off of espresso at the moment, but he didn't blame her at all. It was a much better alternative than booze. Honeydew found himself nursing from the bottle often nowadays.

The waiting room remained silent for the next few long, painstaking minutes. It was empty save for the two vigilantes waiting on the third of their trio. Honeydew found the quiet almost suffocating. Xephos' scream began to reverberate within his skull again, and a fresh pang of anguish rooted itself deep within his chest. After swallowing hard to fight back tears, he looked towards Lomadia beside him.

"Hey, Mads..."

"Hmm?"

"That night, with DoG's henchman up on the roof, I didn't...I couldn't...I understand if you hate me now."

"Honeydew." The blonde's voice was firm. Her hazel eyes dug deep into his own in an effort to better get her point across. "I've told you a thousand times. I don't blame you for what happened, so stop apologizing for it. It's not like you. It happened because of shitty luck. But thankfully for us, they managed to keep Xeph alive." Her harsh glare was then dismissed as she gave a heavy, heartfelt sigh, and her tone lightened slightly as she continued. "He'll recover, Khaz. Xephos wouldn't give up so easily."

"Yeah, sure he will." Honeydew heard himself reply. His words sounded pessimistic, but they were what kept him going. It was true, Xephos was alive. He and Lomadia would help him get back on his feet and then they could go back to the same happy family they had always been. The nurses and doctors had told him over and over again that Xephos would never be the same, but he refused to believe it. His one wish was to see his friend's bright blue eyes, his smile, hear his voice again. That was all he cared about now. Everything else was irrelevant.

Just then the waiting room door swung open again, causing both Supers to glance upwards. There a nurse stood waiting for them. Honeydew recognized her as one of the nurses who had kept him updated on Xephos' condition for the past week.

"He's fit for visitors now. He should be waking up any minute." She told them. Honeydew cast a look similar to one of disbelief to Lomadia, who seemed to return the exchange, before they both leaped to their feet and hurried down the hall to their friend's room.

Honeydew felt his guilt return when he saw the bloodied bandage still wrapped around his friend's cranium. The gauze around the right half of his head was stained a dull crimson. The bandage around his injured shoulder remained hidden under his shirt. It was then that Honeydew suddenly found himself frozen in the doorway. What would he say? For hours and hours he had sat and pondered, thinking up apology after apology after apology, and now his voice was failing him. His sudden hesitation was suppressed when Lomadia rushed past him. Xephos finally seemed to be waking up.

"Xeph!" The blonde cried. Her voice reflected her immense amount of relief when she saw the man begin to stir. Honeydew finally felt the cold numbness in his chest begin to melt as he drew closer to his friend's bedside. Xephos gave a small groan as he propped himself up on his shoulders, eventually managing to sit straight up. He reached a hand up to massage his forehead, his eyes still shut tight as he did so.

"Hello Honeydew, hello love." Xephos managed to recognize them and reply with the proper greetings. In response, Lomadia smiled as she leaned in and planted a tender kiss on her boyfriend's left temple. Honeydew soon felt a beaming smile of his own make its way onto his bearded face. He was glad to see Mads happy again. He was glad to see Xephos in general again. But most of all, he was glad that the family was back together again.

If only it could have lasted.

"How you feelin', pal?" Honeydew asked, surprised to see him able to sit up already. His smile quickly faded upon hearing Xephos' peculiar response.

"Oh, I feel great_, _friend. You could even say I feel _amazing. _It's like a whole new world has opened up for me." The man's shoulders began to tremble with a low chuckle that slowly began to increase in volume. Honeydew became frozen in place again. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as Lomadia tentatively take a step back.

"Xeph dear?" She tried, but Honeydew already knew that it was no longer Xephos they were talking to. The man cut short his menacing laughter to stare up at his former friend. His once-kind blue eyes now bore into him with a fiery intensity, and he grinned a twisted grin from ear to ear. It was then that he spoke again.

"In fact, I think _you_ should see it too!"

Within the next instant Honeydew felt his cold hands digging into his neck, Xephos' fingernails almost enough to draw blood. Lomadia gave a startled scream and stood there in complete shock for a moment before she hurried to ring the bedside assistance buzzer mounted on the nearby wall. Honeydew struggled under Xephos' tight grip, still feeling the other man's piercing gaze drilling into him. It seemed that the more he struggled, the more intent his attacker was on strangling him to death. He eventually reeled back and slammed a fist straight into the other man's face, effectively knocking him away. It was then that the doctor and two other nurses entered the room.

"What's going on?!" The doctor cried, witnessing the chaos and confusion scattered about the room. Honeydew successfully scrambled away, grabbed Lomadia by her hand, and made for the door as the hospital workers swooped in to restrain their patient. Xephos' nose was now bleeding from Honeydew's counterattack, but that didn't stop him from letting out a loud, mad cackle.

"You'll see! You'll see! One day you'll _ALL_ SEE!" He shouted after the two hurrying towards the exit. His maniacal laughter was abruptly cut off when the door slammed shut. Once again, everything was calm, and everything was quiet. After taking a moment to let everything sink in, Lomadia buried her face in her hands and burst into tears. Honeydew said nothing as he wrapped an arm around her comfortingly, leading her out of the building.

"I'm sorry." He whispered as the blonde sobbed her heart out. "I am so, so sorry..."

In the end, as a cruel twist of fate, Honeydew had received his wish. He was indeed able to see his friend's eyes and smile again, but they were only gross perversions of what they once were. Xephos' laughter had replaced his screams in his nightmares, growing louder and louder, closer and closer until he forced himself to wake up. Shortly after their visit, Xephos was diagnosed as Homicidally Insane, and he escaped his transfer to the local asylum by slaughtering his escorts and stealing the hospital van. It and the bodies were found two days later in a roadside ditch. The new serial killer "X" had been born. He was very real, very active, and very, very dangerous.

Honeydew had been naïve to think that everything would just return to normal after that fateful night. Problems as big as that do not simply go away. In the end, they never go away. In the end, they stay with you, torment you, drive you to drink. The guilt will remain, an eternal scar that plagues your heart, and you find yourself dwelling on what you did every waking moment for the rest of your life. Because in the end, there will always be consequences. In the end, there was no escape.


End file.
